FACT looks for full-time CMD as Mini Ratna status continues to elude 

Employees of the public sector Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) are worried that the fertiliser maker, which recorded profit over six years from 2018-19, may slip into financial trouble as a severe shortage of raw materials has hit the company during the first three quarters of the current year.

The employees are also worried that the company lacks a full-time chairman and managing director (CMD) at this crucial juncture. S.C. Mudgerikar, the CMD of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, is holding additional charge of CMD, FACT. Kishor Rungta, who was full-time CMD of FACT, stepped down when his term ended over a year ago.

Raw material shortage has eased comparatively over the fourth quarter, but the first quarter saw the situation in West Asia affecting free shipping of raw materials like rock phosphate and phosphoric acid.

FACT Workers’ Organisation secretary general George Thomas said that in these difficult times, decision-making had to be quick and efficient as competition was rife, and that FACT had multiple fields of operations that include fertilisers, petrochemicals, and engineering and design. A full-time CMD could smoothen the process of decision-making, he added.

The employees are also seeking Mini Ratna status for the company, which, they feel, the company deserves considering that its net worth is positive and other criteria for conferring the status have been satisfied. They are of the view that getting the Mini Ratna status among PSUs will help FACT leverage its position in the market as well as to take decisions independently.

The employees appealed to the government to consider conferring the status on FACT considering its history of good performance over the past six years.

According to the employees union, FACT’s financial performance will get a big boost if caprolactam production is restarted and the expanded facility for Factamfos production is commissioned. The work on the latter project had lagged and needed to be speeded up for commissioning, a union leader said.

The employees have appealed to the State government to withdraw tax on LNG as it will generate more income in the form of more employment and taxes from the company.